OXFORD - Just when it seemed that America's "Homeland Security state" could not get more surreal, the United States Transportation Security Administration has rolled out a costly Scylla and Charybdis at major airports: either you accept dangerous doses of radiation and high-resolution imaging of your naked body, or, worried about the health risks of cumulative radiation, you opt out of the new full-body x-ray machines (rapidly dubbed "porno-scanners").
But if you opt out, you are now subjected, as I was last week, to an extraordinarily sexualized and invasive "pat-down" by TSA officials. "I will now touch your private parts," a very uncomfortable female TSA official said to me when I flew out of New York's Kennedy Airport. And, sure enough, I experienced the invasive touching of genitals and breasts that is now standard policy for US travelers.
Continue reading at Project Syndicate.
Now, how well-screened is the stuff in the cargo hold on these planes?
At this point, it'll be a long time before I ride a plane again. The idea of the body scans doesn't really bother me, if radiation weren't involved. In fact, I suspect these scanners are cheap-a**, since they use dangerous x=rays instead of some other sort of imaging tool like a sonogram.
Cherkof and his buds couldn't get these things out there fast enough. Typical republican, using the public and his position for personal gain at the expense of those he's supposedly protecting.
The "now standard policy for US travelers." is also obviously unconstitutional TSA policy, which fails all the balancing tests between security and privacy etc. outlined by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, Jr. when he was sitting on the 3d Circuit in 2006. There is no Supreme Court test yet, so Alito's test, and the 9th Circuit's hold the most authority Nationwide, and make some legal sense- the sexual groping and nude photographing is not "both “minimally intrusive” and “effective”, as Alito's tests demand. 9th Circuit ruled in 2007, that “a particular airport security screening search is constitutionally reasonable provided that it ‘is no more extensive nor intensive than necessary, in the light of current technology, to detect the presence of weapons or explosives.’ ” Law Professor Rosen wrote why the scanners and pat downs are unconst. in the Washington Post last week. http://bodyscannertruth.com/?p=1208 . And a Lawyer in CO is suing Napolitano/DHS and calling for an injunction-- this is on Crispinmiller's site dated 11/30 http://markcrispinmiller.com/2010/11/co-lawyer-files-for-injunction-against-naked-body-scanners/
Being handcuffed to a chair won't be the norm for those who "opt out" of both these ridiculous treatments, rationally stand on const. rights and "just say no"
Why are they doing this with hundreds pf people standing nearby?
Obviously it isn't for our protection. It is security theatrics.
They are conditioning us psychologically for the coming police state through the intimidation, degradation, radiation and humiliation. Period.